Two Christians publicly flogged in Indonesia for drinking, gambling

Thankfully I don't have to live under the threat of physical punishment as a result of breaching the teachings of a possibly made-up being.

publicly flogged...

Is this 2021 or 1421?

How could any independent critical free thinker defend these barbaric practices. Outdated laws based on religion should have no place in a modern civilized world.

Kooky religious nuts. Not a good place to live, especially if your beliefs are different from the kooks who are calling the shots.

Stonings will be next

How did they get any alcohol if drinking it is illegal there?

Without the description,the photo made me thought it was a guillotine penalty with a hooded executioner!

The credulous folk of Aceh are a couple of generations short of "woke". But nothing in this world can stop social change because the times are constantly "a-changin'". That said, human folly and the idiocracies it begets is the only approximation to the concept of "eternity" that we humans can get our heads around.

How on earth does a place like Aceh exist? I'd love to see what skeletons are hidden in the closets of the people in charge.

Unfortunately, it is incidents like this that help the Qfolk believe that if Muslims move to western counties that they are going to try and force it on everyone. But I think the reason they leave these places is to escape these archaic laws.

Aceh is the only province in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law.

Made a note to myself not go there on vacation, or ever, for that matter. Bass ackwards place.

How did they get any alcohol if drinking it is illegal there?

Some year back the sanitation workers in Islamabad, fighting for a wage increase, took industrial action that included refusing to pick up any empty bottles of alcohol. A special group had to be brought in to clean up these bottles (mainly whisky) to save the local politicians embarrassment. And this went on for several days.

Just another point, Indonesia is a big country with world's largest Muslim population. Aech is one province where stricter religious laws were agreed to too to bring rebellion under control. As someone who has visited Indonesia on many occasions, let me assure you that most of Indonesia is as diverse as you may find anywhere else in Asia. I have seen things in Jakarta (even during Ramadan), that would make your hair (and possibly your toes) curl. There is probably nothing you can do, smoke or buy in your home country, that you cannot do in Java, and particularly, in Jakarta. Had some wild times there. Great city.

That is Aceh province. They got the Shariah law they wanted, and now everybody, including religious minorities, have to live under it.

Unsurprisingly, the islamist parties demand the same for all of Indonesia.

Mocheake

Made a note to myself not go there on vacation, or ever, for that matter. Bass ackwards place.

Aceh province is (unsurprisingly) not a tourist destination. Bali is, and it is an island with a majority Hindu population and no Shariah. As long as that lasts.

Must be sweaty inside that beehive mask.

Not quite as bad as the Ku Klux Klan, but getting there, and pretty horrific all the same.

The person on the right side of the picture ... what is going on there? Is that the caner?

Yes. Their face is covered to hide their identity.